Sculptures take funding hit in Arlington Hts.

Now is not the time to spend $12,000 on rented art sculptures for downtown Arlington Heights, village officials said on Monday.

"We heard the residents and this is one of the things they signaled out," said Trustee Norn Breyer. "We have to be cognizant of that."

Peter Long and Ted Balcom, co-chairs of the Arlington Heights Arts Commission, went before the village board on Monday to see if they could still spend $12,000 to rent four sculptures for two years. The money was part of the 2008-09 budget and had already been approved.

However, the board told Long and Balcom to hold off because of tough economic times. "We're going to have to make decisions way more distasteful than this in the upcoming weeks," Trustee Tom Stengren said about budget hearings slated to take place in March. "We need to look at funding things that are only absolutely necessary. If we fund this I'm afraid we'll get negative feedback from residents."

The village has been renting sculptures for about four years. The sculptures are funded by the village's food and beverage tax, not property taxes. The sculptures are mostly installed near the downtown train station, although a few were placed near Lake Arlington and one in Harmony Park. Because the company that rented the sculptures went out of business all of the art either has or will be removed, Balcom said.

"In our (art) community people are suffering too," he said. "These are tough economic times for artists."

Some trustees said maybe the sculptures should be funded via corporate sponsorships or private donations.

"Public art can be a tough sell even in good economic times," Long said. "But it's something we will look into."

Village officials recently told the arts commission not to spend $30,000 that was budgeted for art inside the new village hall, Balcom said.

While the village mostly rents sculptures, they did purchase one in 2006. Back then the board approved spending $6,750 to buy the "Cell Phone Booth" sculpture for downtown Arlington Heights. The piece is a critique of the proliferation of cell phones and is a bright-red phone booth filled with glass tiles featuring intimidating faces.